On May 27th, the 9thAlumni Congress of the Alumni Association was held at the International Academic Exchange Center. At the important moment of the magnificent opening of the 120th anniversary and comprehensive promotion of the “Double First-Class” construction, over 200 participants including representatives from all over the alumni associations, all school leaders, directors from colleges and functional departments and representatives of teaching staff and students gathered together to discuss about work related to the 120th anniversary and the blueprint for HZAU’s development.
At the beginning of the meeting presided over by vice president Zhang Weiyuan in the morning, Zhang Weiyuan, president of Wuhan Alumni Association and Chairman of Wuhan HVSEN Biotechnology Co., Ltd. delivered a welcome speech. He said that for decades of development, the alma mater, as a witness of our youth, our eagerness for learning and our pursuit of friendships, has become more beautiful and stronger than ever before. And revisiting the campus reminded him of the precious memories of the past. To greet the forthcoming 120th anniversary, he promised that the Wuhan Alumni Association, the Provincial Alumni Association and the Alumni Association of student news agency will do their utmost as a host, sincerely inviting all alumni back to bestow, with their efforts and wisdom, precious presents for her 120th birthday.
Li Mingjia, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of HZAU and vice president of the Alumni Association, made a school work report, in which he introduced the progress that HZAU made in 2017 in terms of the following three aspects. As regards to the cause development of HZAU, he mentioned that remarkable achievements were scored last year, such as promoted quality of talent fostering, growing vitality of talent team building, stronger ability of scientific and technological innovation and social services, enhanced international influence, improved campus infrastructure and further cultural and ethical progress. As to the “Double First-Class” construction, he suggested that HZAU would, committed to the philosophy of “striving to be top-notch”, speed up the building of first-class disciplines to further improve their competitiveness. In the matter of the work pertaining to alumni and foundations, he introduced that the election of new term of officers for the Alumni Association Council was completed in 2017 and the past year also saw the founding of a couple of domestic alumni associations and some preparatory committees for overseas ones, which prompted large donations. Finally, he extended thanks to all alumni for their care, support and assistance to the alma mater and hoped that HZAU and the alumni would pool strength and unite as one to write a new chapter for the school's development.
Wang Congyan, member of the standing committee of the Party Committee of HZAU and president assistant, presented a report on the preparation work for the 120th anniversary which covered three respects: on keeping “Double First-Class” construction and celebration of the 120th anniversary going hand in hand, on creating sound academic and humanistic atmosphere and on celebrating the school day in concerted efforts and welcoming the alumni back with great sincerity. He said that the celebration is not only for HZAU’s 120th birthday, but also for academic and humanistic activities and for all HZAUers including all alumni. In the earlier stage, a host of academic and cultural activities were held in accordance with the requirements of “high quality for academic activities and good tastes for cultural activities”, winning active participation and great support of the alumni. Also, he expected that the alumni would join activities like “Alumni House”(an information management system for alumni), school flag relay, anniversary carnival and alumni enterprise brand day, making joint efforts to make the school day a cheerful, harmonious and all-happy one and to create rich atmosphere that allows us to cherish the memories of the past, draw beautiful pictures of the future, review our affectionateness with the alma mater and voice our feelings towards home country.
At the meeting, the launching ceremony of “Alumni House” was held by Li Zhongyun, director of the School Affairs Committee, chairman of the Education Foundation and the former party secretary of the Party Committee of HZAU, marking that the HZAU alumni information management system went live on network platform.
What was held later was a launching ceremony of school flag relay “Pass it on”. Li Zhongyun transferred the flag to the alumni in Hubei province, the first stop; and then, the president of the Wuhan Alumni Association Zhang Weiyuan took the flag on behalf of the alumni in Hubei. The school flag relay will cover a total of 38 stops including the Overseas Alumni Association and provinces and cities across the country, scheduled to return to HZAU on the day of the 120th anniversary.
During the work communication session of industry alumni association, Zhao Jibin, president of Shanghai Wo Di Intelligent Equipment Corp., and Deng Juntao, deputy general manager of Tian Yu Eco-Environment Co.,Ltd., introduced the role that industry alumni association had played in uniting alumni, connecting the industrial world with the academic one and jointly building development platform. Other four alumni representatives presented reports on development of alumni enterprises as well.
In the afternoon, a symposium presided over by Li Mingjia was held to discuss about the celebrations of the school day. Alumni were encouraged to express their feelings about how to participate in the celebrations and how to run them well. Having recalled their years of learning here at HZAU and looked back at their growth experiences, they all extended their wishes and proposed suggestions in an effort to make the school day a successful one. The deep and profound friendship between teachers and students and the immeasurable love for the alma mater were all integrated into every greeting, every wish and every contribution. In addition, president assistant Guo Gangqi gave an introduction of the donation project.
Gao Chi, secretary of the Party Committee of HZAU, returned from Jianshi County to participate in the seminar and gave a concluding speech. He mentioned that the immense emotions and inexhaustible confessions towards the alma mater enabled us to feel a kind of true love, priceless and invaluable. The alma mater and the alumni were a community with a shared future where their emotional links, just as what the poem A Song of the Travelling Son reads, are an eternal presence. The alma mater and the alumni were a community of shared value which can find its expression in the profound connotation of “learn and practice, achieve and help achieve” continuously practiced and enriched by generations of HZAUers, making it our common quality and rooted disposition. He sincerely invited more alumni to come back to school, sharing their stories with HZAUers and passing on the excellence, fine character and features from generation to generation. The alma mater and the alumni were a community of shared development, requiring that the Alma mater and alumni should seek common development by mutual promotion. Also, the alma mater and the alumni were a community of shared happiness, for it was HZAU’s responsibility and obligation to show consideration for the life-long happiness of students. It is, undoubtedly, our goal and mission to jointly fight for the lifetime happiness of every alumnus, every student and every staff member, and even for the welfare of the Chinese nation and human beings at large. Finally, he concluded his speech by inviting the mass alumni to come back to the alma mater on the occasion of her 120th birthday. You know, “better meet than miss”.
In the end, a handover ceremony of the flag of alumni association was held, in which the Hunan Alumni Association took the flag and was designated to host the tenth alumni congress in 2019.
Translated by Wu Zhijia;
Instructed by Xie Lujie.
